Looking Back

 The hardest part was watching the video.

There was a time when our school didn't have security cameras. We lived on our wiles and the hopes that an eyewitness would show up and spill the beans. Now we just roll back the tape. Except there is no tape. Just digital time-stamped video that our principal can access in the case of an incident like last Thursday. 

Two girls decided, in what I am sure they don't appreciate was the most cliche possible choice, to fight one another in the bathroom. A third grader and a fourth grader, whom I am also sure would not be able to fully express the reasons behind their need to come to fisticuffs. Generally speaking, the boys tend to act more impulsively and square off pretty much wherever they might be when their tempers flare. To the tiniest bit of credit for these young ladies, they chose a spot where the security cameras don't see. 

However, what we did witness, with the aid of technological hindsight, was the stream of mostly girls who packed in behind the two adversaries and the gaggle of boys who gathered just outside the door to try and catch a glimpse of what was happening in the little girls room. Not sugar and spice. That is certain. 

Once that was sorted out and cold water was thrown on the conflict by the adults, it was imagined that the fight was over. Nobody won. Everybody lost. 

Until the school day ended.

And the same gaggle of gawkers found another place out of the watchful camera eye: the elevator room downstairs. But, as in the case of the girls room, this didn't keep us from seeing the gaggle streaming down the stairs with wild abandon. They were about to witness what they must have assumed was going to be the fight of the century. 

Except it never happened. Before any of the video evidence was ever examined, the after school program supervisor noticed that a dozen or more of the students in her care had run off. Their trail was not hard to follow, and before any sort of physical violence could take place, grown ups showed up once again to keep the opponents separated. 

Parents were called. A the two potential fighters were sent home with caregivers. The grandmother of the fourth grade girl wondered how she might help. She had some old school ideas, but she was pretty sure her daughter wouldn't want her to mete those out on the youngest generation. 

We were left of the video. And the blood lust on the faces of those kids who were there to egg them on. What do we do about them?